Israel's NewMed Energy [formerly known as Delek Drilling] on Monday said it was moving forward with the development of the Aphrodite natural gas field offshore Cyprus and reported a drop in quarterly profit as new tax regulations took effect.
The company said it had made a decision with its partners in Aphrodite "to engage with a drillship to drill the first production well in the reservoir."
It did not disclose details of the timeline.
Aphrodite was discovered in 2011 and is estimated to contain 129 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas.
"This is a significant step towards the possible development of Aphrodite – the first natural gas discovery in Cyprus," the company said.
NewMed reported first quarter net profit of $84 million, down from $115 million a year earlier. Revenues from the sale of natural gas and condensate in quarter totaled $247 million, up from $216 million in the previous year.
The company is also a main stakeholder in the large Israeli gas field Leviathan.
NewMed said that Egypt was the main market for Leviathan in the quarter, with 1.1 bcm of gas being supplied to Egypt and 0.7 bcm going to Jordan.
NewMed also announced a profit distribution of $50 million.
(Reuters - Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch / Editing by Steven Scheer)
